Ethics panel talks of $5 limit for lobby gifts to state public officials

By Rick Karlin

Published 12:00 am, Wednesday, December 19, 2012

ALBANY — The proverbial cup of coffee is back in the spotlight when it comes to discussions of gift limits in state government.

During a meeting Tuesday, members of the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics heard a proposal for refining and clarifying New York's complex rules covering what lobbyists can or can't give to elected officials, state employees or executives in state agencies.

Despite numerous meetings, changes and revisions during the past several years, a lot of confusion remains, JCOPE Executive Director Ellen Biben said.

"'Nominal value' has been a tricky concept," Biben said as she put out recommendations for updating the rules to conform with a legislative ethics overhaul last year.

Like previous ethics watchdogs, JCOPE says lobbyists are not supposed to bestow gifts worth more than "nominal value" to lawmakers, agency officials or other decision-makers.

Biben said they should put a dollar figure on that: $5.

"It's a cup of coffee, really," Biben said, prompting some JCOPE commissioners to remark that it would be a premium cup of coffee such as that sold at Starbucks.

That's not the first time a mug of java has been used as the yardstick for the upper limit on what gifts should be.

The fact that the debate keeps resurfacing was noted by David Grandeau, former head of the old Lobbying Commission — that's two generations of ethics watchdogs ago — and a frequent JCOPE critic.

"What is this, the fourth year in a row?" he said when told about the return of the cup of coffee analogy.

JCOPE was established in 2011 as part of an ethics overhaul pushed through by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer formed the old Commission on Public Integrity by combining separate ethics and lobbying panels.

The current commission is putting into regulation the intent of the 2011 law, including the definition of "nominal value" when it comes to gifts. There are exemptions and exceptions. For instance, lawmakers can attend functions where food and drink beyond $5 worth is allowed if it's a widely attended or educational event.

The 2011 law also states that JCOPE will conduct random inspections of the financial disclosure forms of state officials who are in decision-making roles. There are about 25,000 such forms on file. The commission wants to contract with a third party to conduct those audits, or devise some system in which a person can randomly choose forms to look at.

"Staff will not know the identification of the filer," Biben told JCOPE's commissioners.

The panel made no news on its investigation of the sexual harassment claims against Assemblyman Vito Lopez, and the Assembly leadership's decision to sign off on a six-figure settlement with two of the Bronx Democrat's alleged victims. JCOPE does not discuss its probes, even to confirm their existence, but made something of an exception for the closely watched Lopez matter.